Colin Bowman lives 1,200ft above sea level and just a couple of bleak miles from the very end of Yorkshire, although for much of the year it feels like the end of the world up there.

His hill farm in East Arkengarthdale is as remote as they come, but on some mornings in spring he finds that even before daylight cars are already parking on the narrow road near to his farmhouse, and their occupants are walking up the stony track onto his land.

Some of the visitors have come from as far away as Germany, and all of them are hoping to witness one of the most theatrical events in the countryside, the black grouse lek. Lek is the name given to the male black grouse's flamboyant courtship display at dawn, when they gather to compete against each other with fanned-out tail feathers while emitting a distinctive bubbling song. Their object is to occupy the centre of the arena and so mate with a female that is attracted into the lek.

Colin Bowman's farm is a magnet for birdwatchers because there are few places left in the Yorkshire Dales where the spectacle of the lek can be guaranteed. In fact, he has counted as many as 43 males in one lek in the last few years. Elsewhere, black grouse have been steadily disappearing from traditional UK strongholds, especially in Scotland which has two-thirds of the population yet has seen a decline of up to 70 per cent in the last 10 years. And although the species has made a phenomenal recovery in northern England, it is stubbornly refusing to extend further south than Wensleydale to re-inhabit the moors on which it was once a frequent sight.

However, that picture may soon change, thanks to the formation of the Yorkshire Dales Black Grouse Group, which has been launched at Reeth in Swaledale. The group comprises farmers, landowners and representative of conservation bodies, and hopes to create the right conditions for black grouse to establish leks in areas like Wharfedale, Ribblesdale and Nidderdale. The group is the latest initiative by the North Pennines Black Grouse Recovery Project, which was set up 10 years ago and has successfully brought back the species from the brink of extinction in many areas.

When it began work, there were just under 800 black grouse males in England, and numbers were declining at an annual rate of 10 per cent. But by 2006, the last survey, the slide had been reversed and figure increased to more than 1,000 males. Most of that population lies on or around moorland between the valleys of the Tyne, the Wear and the Tees in the North Pennines.

Now the lessons learned from halting the population slide will be used to expand the black grouse's range southwards, says the project officer Phil Warren.

More than 30 years ago, the bird was considered common in some parts of the Yorkshire Dales – especially around Langstrothdale Chase at the head of Wharfedale – but they have steadily retreated north.

Mr Warren says: "In Yorkshire, we are on the southern fringe of the range and if the population is going to expand then it will most likely do so here, because of its past distribution in the Dales.

"Our problem is that the vast majority of the 170 black grouse males known to be in Yorkshire are all north of the Wensleydale valley. South of it we have just one in Coverdale, and seven males near Thornton Rust, with just occasional sightings in the Widdale area to the south of Hawes."

The new Black Grouse Group has been established to help Dales farmers and landowners create the right habitat conditions. One measure that has proved successful further north in the Pennines has been to reduce grazing by sheep on what Warren calls the "white grass" fringes of moorlands, to allow more growth for nesting cover and provide food resources for chicks in the breeding season.

Where this has been tried, the hens have produced 2.5 chicks a head compared to 1.6 in previous years. It was been done successfully at Mr Bowman's farm in East Arkengarthdale, which members of the new Black Grouse Group visited to see for themselves

Another threat to breeding in Yorkshire has been identified as predation by stoats and weasels. Warren says that in places where increased trapping has been instigated lower down from the moors, breeding success has doubled.

"So there's lots of things we can do. Numbers between the Tees and the Tyne have gone through the roof, but we need to increase the range further south by improving conditions."

Mr Warren's assistant, Kim Anderton, gave the newly formed group the latest news about efforts to reintroduce the bird in two places, one in County Durham and the other near Hawes in Wensleydale. Birds were caught at night with high-powered lights and nets, and released within two or three hours at new sites.

At the Hawes site, eight adult males with radio tags were released and they successfully attracted two females to a lek.

The message going out from the Yorkshire Dales Black Grouse Group is that all farmers and landowners with suitable habitats for the game bird can take part. Mr Warren is standing by to go and offer advice, and there is financial aid on offer to help make the improvements.

Simon Lovell of Natural England, said: "This area is a real hotspot for wading birds in the nesting season. And what's good for them should also be good for black grouse. The conditions are more or less ideal, but we just need to take them a stage further and I hope many people will join the new group."

Yhe Yorkshire Dales Black Grouse Group

If you own, manage or tenant-farm moorland or moorland fringe land in the Yorkshire Dales, get in touch with Phil Warren to find out how you can join the new group.

Members will meet about twice a year and receive regular updates on managing the land for black grouse as well as having an opportunity to exchange information and ideas.

The initiative has been set up by the North Pennines Black Grouse Recovery Project, a partnership between the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, RSPB, Natural England, Ministry of Defence, Northumbrian Water and the North Pennines AONB Partnership, with additional funding support from Natural England and the Yorkshire Dales
National Park.

Contact details: Phil Warren, Black Grouse Recovery Project officer, Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, The Gillett, Forest-in-Teesdale, Barnard Castle, County Durham, DL12 0HA. Tel: 01833 622208, Email: pwarren@gct.org.uk